My Wheels - part 2

After a 6 week waiting period to sit my Bermuda driving licence, I was able to take the 3 minute test which consisted of driving in and out of a dozen cones and turning both ways using indicators and arms. Another display of Bermuda efficiency.

As a result though, I was able to return my 50CC rental and bought myself an upgrade to the dominating 100CC Yamaha Axis.

Isn't she a beauty...

2006 Rugby Classic

Each year Bermuda hosts the World Rugby Classic - an Island holiday disguised as a tournament for past rugby players. Teams from NZ, Australia, Argentina, US, Canada, France, South Africa and the Lions contested the Classic with players such as Tony Daly and Matt Cockbain (Aust), Emile N'tamack and Philippe Bernat-Salles (Fr) and Steve McDowell, Charlie Reichelman, Junior Tonu'u and Frano Botica (NZ) featuring in the tournament.

Unfortunately NZ has a tradition of not taking any penalties or conversions and this counted against us big time. We lost our semi-final to eventual winners, the Lions.

Overall though it's fair to say the tournament is little about rugby and mostly about partying - the perfect example being a few years ago when the Aussies were banned from the Classic for running down Front Street naked after winning the tournament! The Classic is held over a week with big parties every night and probably more players being hung over than anywhere near peak physical fitness - not that anyone's complaining though. It's great times!

The 'Classic All Blacks' shaking off hangovers while performing the haka:

Home (temporary)

Home at the moment is in Warwick Parish - about 15 minutes from Hamilton and work. As you can see from the photos below, it's very cool!

Downstairs is the living room and kitchen...


And upstairs the bathroom, laundry and bedroom...
Both levels have balconies and thankfully, air conditioning. I got a really good deal - getting the place fully furnished and inclusive of electricity, water, phone, cable, wireless internet and most importantly... less than 200 metres to the beach!
Perfect.

Work

Butterfield Bank – head office on Front Street...

and my less-glamorous branch on the right (where all the real work is done...).
My job is as an account manager for Butterfield Fund Services. We basically look after 100 or so hedge funds so the job is mainly pricing and trading for these funds. I can’t really tell you any more than that because it’s fair to say I don’t know what I’m doing at the moment!

The hours are great:

• Monday 8am-6pm
• Tuesday to Thursday 9am-5pm
• Friday 7am-10pm

And anything over 35 hours is at time and a half... I can get used to this!

There are about 80 staff and luckily for me there are only a couple of us who also have law degrees which means that I’ll also be working part-time in the legal team once I’ve found my feet a bit.

Bermuda shorts

What you’ve all been waiting for… I think summer’s officially over so Bermuda shorts numbers are probably down from their peak a couple of months ago. However probably one in six guys here still wear them at this time of year and I’m loving being one of them! Here are a couple of photos of what I’ve got so far… they’re pretty styley!

There’s actually quite a lot of thought in deciding colours. Apparently you’re supposed to match either socks with shorts, socks with shirt or shorts with tie. I found it pretty confusing at first, but after seeing people wearing bright red, pink and yellow I’ve decided not to take it too seriously. Unfortunately I have to wait ‘til next season for more of the bright colours…

My wheels

Car ownership is only allowed if your house has an "assessment number" - it's like a right attached to land. As a result (and the cost I guess), most people get around the Island by scooter or motorbike.

The speed limit is 35 kph everywhere but it's fair to say everyone travels at around 50. You've got to be a little carfeul though because a taxi driver I had was telling me how he was caught going 57 a few years back and he lost his licence for a whole year. Also. any speeding violation results in a court appearance - something that I'd quite like to avoid!

After a couple of days of getting the bus to work, I had to hire a scooter. The bus trip (from door to door) took over 45 minutes in rush hour traffic (!!) while the scooter takes 20.

Using a 50cc scooter like this one doesn't require a licence - hence all tourists and newbies to the Island use these. Most people who live here own at least a 100cc scooter or motorbike - these require a licence, which consists of a medical, written and practical tests.

I've had the medical, and surprisingly you have a blood and urine test, yet they didn't test my eyesight from further than half a metre. Very strange.

Beaches

Well, all the beaches I've been to have been pretty incredible as the photos suggest.

For those interested in some geology and biology, only Bermuda and parts of Scotland have pink sand beaches (apparently). This is because the skeleton of a tiny organism known as the red foram helps form the grains of sand on the beaches (I clearly plagiarised this information).

And the water is turquoise in colour because of low levels of phytoplankton. So there you are, file those two pearls away for later use…

Warwick Long Bay

Horseshoe Bay

Somerset Long Bay

Astwood Cove

Other Southern Beaches

Prices

Everything's fairly expensive here, which is understandable given that everything is imported to the Island. People don't seem to mind too much as the lack of tax clearly outweighs the higher prices. Below is a bit of an indication of what prices are like (in US dollars):

Miscellaneous

• Average 2-bedroom house $700,000 - $1,000,000
• Recent model second-hand car $10,000
• New 100cc scooter $3,000
• One month hire of 50cc scooter $450
• Monthly rent $2,000 - $3,000
• Monthly expenses (electricity, water, cable, phone, internet) $400
• Night in a hotel $250 - $600

Food

• KFC (the only international fast food restaurant on the Island) quarter pack (though they don't have potato and gravy for some reason) $7.95
• Cadbury choc 200g (only three different flavours of chocolate here!) $4.00
• Fruit is pretty much $1 per piece, no matter what the particular fruit
• Veges expensive too (haven't even seen carrots here yet) - generally $4 - $5 per piece
• Meat and fish fairly similar to NZ but in US dollars. Sausages are the exception though, $10 for six of them!

Cruise ships

Several cruise ships pass through here each week during summer. Town really livens up at these times as street carnivals take place with bands, traditional dancing and souvenir shops open everywhere. Of course, the pubs and night clubs get pretty good too!

Here are a couple of them - The Empress of the Seas


The Norwegian Crown

Gibbs Hill Lighthouse

I think the top of Gibbs Hill Lighthouse is the highest point on the Island (it sure looks like it) so I had to go up there for a couple of photos.

Firstly, the lighthouse itself:

And a couple of shots from the top:

Random photos and comments

This is for you, Bex.
There are a lot of lizards over here.
These are two of them.

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Loitering and car washing are big problems in Bermuda... Actually, it can get a little worse than that - apparently there are one or two murders here each year and the other day I read in the newspaper (yes, there is a newspaper) that some people were throwing Molotov cocktails at cars. Despite this, there’s definitely a lot less crime here than back home.

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This is looking up the main street in Hamilton, aptly called Front Street.In the foreground is the ‘Birdcage’. Apparently, when it’s really busy, a police officer directs traffic from in there. I’m yet to see it myself though.

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This is Somerset Bridge, the smallest drawbridge in the world. It is only large enough for the mast of a yacht to pass through. The title of world's smallest drawbridge is a bit of a scam though - a taxi driver I was talking to said he'd been here for eight years and had never heard of the "drawbridge" being raised.

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Believe it or not this building was intended as a storage warehouse. Apparently what happened was that Bermuda needed a storage warehouse and one of the Caribbean islands needed a town hall a hundred years ago or so. As there were no architects in the region plans for both these buildings were drawn up in England. The plans then got mixed up and Bermuda ended up with this building as a storage building and whatever Caribbean island it was must’ve ended up with quite an ugly town hall. I obviously can’t
confirm any of this, but it’s a good story.

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Bacardi Limited. I’m sad to say that Bermuda is the headquarters of Bacardi (probably for tax reasons) and not the producer – otherwise it might be a bit cheaper here. As an aside, I can personally attest that the fountains at either side of the building do not flow with Bacardi…

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You'll never guess what this is... drive-thru banking. That's right, if you want to withdraw some cash or send a wire then you can do it here from the comfort of your own car. I can't even imagine this happening back home!

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